Innehållsförteckning för #239 May 2015 från PC Powerplay

From my own personal experience, The Elder Scrolls Online was a bit of a mixed bag of an MMO. It had some good stuff, it had some bad stuff, and my girlfriend and I stopped playing after about a month. It seems that this is bit of a common experience, and it seems that kind of player is exactly who Bethesda’s hoping will come back for The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited. The new iteration of the game is basically the complete edition - the whole original game, all major expansions. It’s currently about seventy bucks on Steam, but has a free-subscription model. For those wanting something more, there is a Premium Membership, and an in-game store for buying certain items and boosts.…

For those on the outside looking in, Homestuck fandom is baffling. A web comic with flash games in it? Alien internet trolls based on zodiac signs? Endless references to Con Air? Even Jess Haskins, creative director of its long-awaited video game spin off, struggles to nail down the core of Homestuck’s appeal. “Man, that is, that is a big question. I think part of it is that it’s such a big and expansive world and has all these wonderful casts of characters. It’s a world that’s actually really easy to put yourself in to. Because it has its own lingo, it has a lot of stuff about how characters have their powers, and their quirks, and their personality, and their look. It’s really easy to immerse yourself in that world,…

PRICE $349 www.asus.com.au Bristling with more antennae than an Air Warfare Destroyer, with a whopping six in total, this is one seriously aggressive router. It’s also one of the most expensive Tri-band routers around, and when combined with the fact that ASUS routers have historically performed well, my hopes were high indeed. Sadly it didn’t turn in quite the roaring performance I expected, but it makes up for this lack in performance in other ways. As with every router tested, it supports all of the common 802.11 standards, a/b/g/n and the newest, ac. It does so with a single 2.4GHz network, alongside twin 5GHz networks. ASUS is one of the few router manufacturers that employs automatic-network detection for connecting devices, cleverly selecting the appropriate network for each device based on…

1. Pioneer DDJ-SZ Gold Edition Price: $2000 • Distributor: Pioneer pioneerdj.com If you fancy yourself becoming a disc-jockey maestro of the local discotech, you probably need some professional hardware, and nothing says “professional” in the music biz, like gold bling. POWERED UP: Combined with Serato DJ software, this controller with two 24-bit soundcards, four-channel mixer, two mic inputs, two master out ports (and a host of other in/out options) can suit a rage of PA/Mixing/Noisemaking roles. PLAYED OUT: Only 1000 units available in gold. Then you’ll have to buy boring old black. 2. Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Price: $Flagship-phone-price • Distributor: Samsung www.samsung.com/au It wasn’t that long ago that an octocore (ALL HAIL THE OCTOCORE) CPU in a PC was a luxury item, and now, it seems, it is the…

Over the last couple of weeks there has been a storm in a teacup about some questionable tweets by John Stewart’s Daily Show replacement, Trevor Noah. Trawling through the comedian’s twitter history results in some rather tasteless, or at least ill-advised jokes about Jews and women. Twitter isn’t a great venue for nuance or subtlety, so it’s understandable that the jokes come off as blunt and none too clever, but it is a valuable resource for comics to test out bite sized chunks of new material to see if they stick. Some of the tweets being called to account (most loudly by Fox new, long term targets of The Daily Show, with headlines such as “Daily Show Disaster: How Trevor Noah Picks On the Powerless”) date back to 2009. On…

FOUR MOST IMPRESSIVE FEATURES: 1. XFX R9295X2 GPU 2. Corsair AX1500i PSU 3. Epson EH-TW9200W Projector with 100” screen 4. Logitech G27 Racing Wheel with Playseat LAST UPGRADE: An entire new gaming rig (i7-4790k CPU, ASUS Maximus VII Ranger MOBO, Corsair AX1500i PSU, Corsair H105 Cooler, XFX R9 295X2 GPU, G.skill 32GB Trident X 2400Mhz RAM, Samsung 850 EVO 1TB solid state HDD, Western Digital Black 4TB HDD, Corsair 780T case, Pioneer Blu-ray writer) DREAM UPGRADE: Another R9 295X2 with a freesync monitor or a Corsair K95 keyboard as my 5 years old Razer keyboard has seen better days. FAVOURITE FEATURE: XFX R9 295X2 and Corsair AX1500i WHY SO SPECIAL?: I have been planning to build a new gaming rig to replace my 5 years old rig for over a…

In a move that sounds a lot like a satire of modern gaming, Atari have announced that the 70s arcade classic Asteroids will be getting a gritty reboot as a first-person, survival, space sim MMO. Asteroids: Outpost will grant players control of a deep-space miner - who must extract minerals, build bases, and defend against incoming asteroid showers and hostile claim jumpers. All the bases in the game are susceptible to looting, which means players must do their best to both defend their own resources whilst seeking out the bases of other players in order to lay claim to theirs. The game will also feature a weapon and equipment crafting system for upgrading and creating new gear. This system will utilize both the precious resources mined by the player as…

Our PC gaming is about to receive a free arse-rocket, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the late 1990s. I’m talking about DirectX 12, and side by side with that, Vulkan. Both are low level APIs --the cogs in the machine at the most basic level -- the graphics processing machinery upon which all other APIs and graphics engines sit and do their thing. Until now, a new DirectX has generally meant a small handful of new tools for the developers to pretty things up with, a bit of a boost in FPS in the order of 10-15%, and support for things that don’t matter to us in gaming, like GPGPU support in DX11. Now, though, early hype has been backed up by some pretty amazing numbers. An…

After viewing the epic TV series, Breaking Bad, in its harrowing (but brilliant) entirety, I can’t say I felt any lingering affection for Saul Goodman. He was a well written character, but sleazy and unlovable. Surprisingly, I’m enjoying the spinoff series immensely and, now, I just want to hug the guy. I didn’t buy Better Call Saul with any kind of expectation. I just wanted more content, set in the same world. Oddly, it’s the mums at school pick-up who I usually talk to about Breaking Bad. The demand for it endures. The desire for “more of the similar,” is also why I picked up Telltale’s Game of Thrones. I’ve read the books and watched the show, but they are, largely, identical. It’s fun seeing an actor portray Joffrey, but…

MAGICKA 2 DEVELOPER PIECES INTERACTIVE PUBLISHER PARADOX INTERACTIVE DUE MAY 26 www.magicka2.com The sleeper indie hit Magicka turned out to be such a success that Paradoc Interactive commissioned a second game in the series. For those unfamiliar with the concept of Magicka, it’s a co-op ARPG in which players take the role of mages capable of combining elements to create powerful offensive and defensive spells. Predicated on chaotic co-op/competitive multiplayer, a huge variety of spells to discover and goofy humour, Magicka 2 should fill the Magicka shaped hole in your heart. BLOOD BOWL 2 DEVELOPER CYANIDE STUDIO PUBLISHER FOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE DUE JUNE www.bloodbowl-game.com The first time Cyanide attempted to make a game based on Games Workshop’s veteran fantasy sports tactical table-top game, the results were a mixed bag. There…

DEVELOPER VISCERAL GAMES PUBLISHER EA GAMES PRICE $79.99 AVAILABLE AT ORIGIN, RETAIL www.origin.com The game has changed. Battlefield Hardline is an exit stage left from the oo-rah flag waving with new developer Visceral ditching the dogs of war for the boys in blue, and… pause for dramatic effect… embracing a story component which will grab you by the balls rather than something you quickly skip, bolting straight to multiplayer. Cop this. You play law enforcer Nick Mendoza, arguably the most stunningly named protagonist outside of Suda51’s wheelhouse. Nick wants to clean up the mean streets of Miami, but to do so he’ll have to weave his way through drug dens, militarised patriots and triads while dodging crooked cops and lead flying around him. The plot is doled out episodically for…

DEVELOPER WARGAMING PUBLISHER WARGAMING PRICE Free to play AVAILABLE AT CLOSED BETA www.wargaming.net I’ve been a big World of Tanks fan since its release, and while World of Warplanes left me kind of cold, I’ve had high hopes for World of Warships ever since it was announced. There’s something about the slow pace of the 20th century, pre-missile naval warfare that really appeals, from the heavy broadsides of massive battleships to the darting attacks of nimble destroyers. It’s just pretty cool. And, thankfully, it looks like the game is going to be absolutely deliver. As of writing, the game’s in Closed Beta, and while there is a limited array of ships so far, otherwise the game seems pretty much feature-complete. All the ships classes – destroyer, cruiser, battleships, and carrier…

The moment Australia has been waiting for is finally here. No, we’re still not a Republic dammit, but we just got the next best thing – Netflix! Being the Internet-savvy, advanced PC users that you lot are, we’re guessing a huge portion of PC PowerPlay’s audience has already been tapping into this vast pool of quality video content via the wonders of VPN. Still, there’s probably a good portion of you that haven’t, so we’ve cast an eye across the various Video On Demand (VOD) services now available in the country, checking out the size of their catalogues, the cost, and their bandwidth requirements. We’ve also caught up with the major players in the Aussie VOD scene to check in on how the release of Netflix looks set to shake…

PRICE $199 www.dlink.com.au I bent the rules a little by including this router, as it’s only a Dual-band beastie rather than a fully-fledged Tri-band behemoth. This means it only has a single 5GHz network alongside the 2.4GHz network, which is why it’s marketed as a 1900Mbit/sec device (5GHz = 1300Mbit/sec + 2.4GHz = 600Mbit/sec). For many users this won’t be a problem, as they may only have a couple of devices that can make use of the faster 802.11n or ac standards, and the cost saving is dramatic. But given that this is a slightly older product, does it have the oomph necessary to keep up with the latest Tri-band devices? This router comes with three antennae, and they’re all detachable for those who’d like to try add-on antennae, which…

PRICE $290 www.netgear.com.au Releasing in the middle of 2014, the Nighthawk set tongues wagging with its dramatic looks and even more dramatic price tag. Thankfully it’s now much more affordable than at launch, making it one of the least expensive Tri-band routers, but performance has also suffered as a result of its age. Looking like some kind of bizarre robotic insect on its back, the six antennae fold outwards from the lid. They can be adjusted to point at a certain angle, but not in different directions. It’s got a massive footprint, unless you choose to hang it from a nearby wall or inside your cupboard, but given the performance issues I wouldn’t suggest the latter. The usual array of ports can be found on the rear: four Ethernet, one…

LETTER OF THE MONTH WINS! Write in to PCPP with your rants, considered opinions, and endless run-on sentences of pure awesome. The address is letters@pcpowerplay.com.au. Each letter read by hand! This Letter of the Month winner scores himself a Ballistix 16GB Kit (4GBx4) DDR4 kit, thanks to our friends at Micron! LETTER OF THE MONTH FRIENDLY CONVERSATION I must admit, like most gaming nerds, I don’t like change. And when the two writer reviews came in I didn’t think I would like them. But they have won me over, they read like a pod cast and getting more than one view on a game is incredibly helpful. PC Powerplay is an important part of my gaming news gathering and now that you are moving into more online media I think…

Luc Besson recently released a motion picture with a far-fetched, yet eerily plausible premise: that Scarlett Johansson only uses 10% of her brain. Should the full power of her latent mind-flesh be unleashed, what might she accomplish? Would we even recognise her as human? Would her new ability to show emotions render her typecast, forcing Marvel Studios to cast a new Black Widow? These dank, dark questions still hung in the air as GDC rolled around this year, when Ashes of the Singularity showed off the potential of DirectX 12. The PR line went a little something like this: today’s unwitting gamers are only using 10% of their computers raw power, and those who upgrade to Windows 10 will bear witness to battling cyber-armies on a scale that will make…

EARLY ACCESS DARKEST DUNGEON DEVELOPER RED HOOK STUDIOS PRICE $20 www.darkestdungeon.com/ This place changes a person. There’s no doubting it. You may enter your family’s estate as relatively sane, but before a single quest is finished, your band of explorers will be bickering, at best. More likely, darkness, hunger and injury will have pushed them to paranoia, fear, selfishness or one of any number of dangerous, yet hilarious, stress conditions. An abusive companion might admonish another for not dodging well enough, while a masochistic one will refuse healing. Still, Darkest Dungeon is an absolute delight. As well as complaining, backstabbing, whoring and vomiting, there are complex, intertwining systems to control whatever you’d care to engage with. This includes managing loot/gear, character stats, turn based combat, town upgrades and, of course,…

2014 was a pretty damn good year for gaming, with a huge number of excellent titles finding release throughout the year. We asked you to cast your votes over a number of categories and tell us why you decided to choose the particular games you voted for. The results were revealing, as were the comments. So read on to find out what you, the reader saw as the best games of last year. MOST INNOVATIVE GAME/TECH WINNER: The Nemesis system in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor RUNNER UP: Oculus Rift ODD OUTLIER: Don Bradman Cricket 2014 – we didn’t even know it was actually a thing until we verified its existence using the magical Google machine. Google also showed us that it had remarkably high aggregate scores, something that is…

DEVELOPER TOADMAN INTERACTIVE PUBLISHER FATSHARK PRICE $9.99 USD AVAILABLE AT STEAM www.bloodsports.tv The elevator pitch for Bloodsports TV must have been something along the lines of, “Imagine a MOBA that’s also a Tower Defence game that’s also Smash TV but with a reality TV spin”. That one line pretty much sums up Bloodsports TV. It’s a co-op tower defence that utilises MOBA style controls and upgrades set within a reality TV show format. It’s a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster when it comes to concepts, with the disparate parts fit together pretty well, and only occasionally does it run amok and cause problems. Set in the post-apocalyptic Sweden of Fatshark’s colourful but ultimately fairly unimpressive tactical RPG, Krater, Bloodsprts TV sees players taking the role of a violent reality TV…

DEVELOPER UBISOFT SOFIA PUBLISHER UBISOFT PRICE $54.95 USD AVAILABLE AT STEAM assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-au/games/assassins-creed-rogue.aspx What was almost assured to be an overlooked title sitting somewhere between the series’ shining diamonds and polished lumps of coal (namely, Assassin’s Creed Unity) due in part to its simultaneous release alongside its overhyped next-gen brother (again, Unity), Assassin’s Creed Rogue is a surprisingly enjoyable instalment in the franchise provided your expectations are tempered, combining an intriguing and refreshing storyline with some solid if rehashed seafaring combat mechanics and on-land gameplay that’s begging for improvement. Assassin’s Creed Rogue takes place between Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed III, and plays less like a sequel and more like a large expandalone. It runs shorter than a full release and focuses on providing more details on the…

PRICE $299 www.dlink.com.au With D-Link’s Dual-band baby impressing me so much, I was rather excited to see what its latest product could do. Gazing at the high price tag, I immediately assumed this was a Tri-band router, but it turns out I was wrong. D-Link is charging Tri-band prices for this Dual-band router, so it had better deliver some outstanding results to justify the price hike. Thankfully, it does. Before I delve into the performance results, let’s just take a look at the very unique design of this product. Looking a little like a toilet roll holder, this black tower of Wi-Fi goodness doesn’t have an ugly antenna sticking out from every orifice. Which begs the question as to how it can perform so well compared to those with exterior…

I’ve been playing PC games since I was 14, and every time I’m infected by that awful nostalgia that tells me gaming has never been as good as it was 1998-2005, the same realisation washes across me: we are on the cusp. What cusp? THE cusp. Well, another cusp in a long line of cusps, but the most interesting cusp thus far: the freedom cusp. People forget that when John Carmack was working on Wolfenstein that the PC was no match for the graphical computing power of consoles. Despite the range of gameplay available it was extraordinarily difficult to bring the visual breadth of machines dedicated to gaming within reach of the Personal Computer. They forget that the cost-effective GPU is only, really, ten years old; the Accelerated Graphics Port…